“How Theatre and Film Function”, or the Presence of the Czech Language in the “Po Naszymu” Speech of Poles in the Zaolzie Region

Abstract

The present article, entitled “How Theatre and Film Function”, or the Presence of Czech in the Commonly Spoken Po Naszymu in Těšín Silesia, in the Czech Republic, is an outcome of the sociolinguistic research into this environment, which the authors have been working on for some time. The linguistic situation in the Czech Těšín region corresponds to the nationality (ethnic) situation there, with its rich and varied local culture. In addition to the Czech majority, the area has traditionally been inhabited by a Polish minority, utilizing, among other things, a network of minority schools with Polish as the language of instruction. They navigate the Czech language environment without difficulty, and I n unofficial (and non-public) communication use their native West Těšín dialect, known as Silesian-Polish. From these codes, a mixed spoken language – „po naszymu” – has emerged, which, unlike the Polish-Silesian subdialect, has no standard form and reacts dynamically to the changing extra-linguistic reality. The paper presents an analysis of part of an authentic text in this mixed language.